Home » Gerald Giam
Gerald Giam
Passion for activism extinguished…but not for long
Oct. 1 | In support of the 16 ex-detainees call for Commission of Inquiry to investigate their detentions, TOC republishes this article which first appeared in TOC on May 18, 2009. – This is the first part of a week-long focus on The Online Citizen of the...
Criminal Procedure Code: tilting the law in their own favour
May. 20 | Some of the proposed changes to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) make me wonder just how far this government will go to tilt the playing field in their own favour, even when it means compromising on the fundamental rights that people in many other developed...
Low Thia Khiang: Low productivity not workers’ fault
Mar. 3 | By Gerald Giam Workers’ Party chief Low Thia Khiang has slammed the PAP government for seemingly suggesting that Singaporean workers have only themselves to blame for their low incomes, because of their low productivity and skills. He said it was easy...
Is Burma going to be Southeast Asia’s Iran or North Korea?
Aug. 11 | One of the estimated 800 tunnels currently being built in Burma. (Read more about it here.) Gerald Giam Asean’s policy of non-interference in member states’ internal affairs has been taken to the extreme to mean closing a blind eye to just about...
Singapore: Multiculturalism or the melting pot?
Jul. 20 | Announcement: Chief Editor of TOC, Choo Zheng Xi, will be leaving for New York University on the 27th of July. He’ll be in NYU to pursue his masters degree in law. As such, he’ll be stepping down as Chief Editor and he’ll also be leaving...
Don’t turn my country into an administrative state
May. 27 | Breaking News: Singapore confirms first case of H1N1, Influenza A. She is a 22-year old woman. She was in New York from May 14 to 24. She arrived in Singapore on 26 May and her GP sent her to the hospital on the same day. Gerald Giam / Senior Writer I...
Singapore, ASEAN must strongly condemn Myanmar
May. 15 | Update: Singapore ‘dismayed’ over Suu Kyi charges - AFP (Friday, 15 May 2009) Gerald Giam / Senior Writer Myanmar’s opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest after an apparently...
Mas Selamat captured – all thanks to the ISD!
May. 8 | Gerald Giam Malaysia cleans up the mess. Singapore takes the credit – shamelessly. “DEPUTY Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng commended the Internal Security Department (ISD) officers for going all out to track down the escaped terror leader Mas Selamat,...
Labour Day: Economic growth should benefit all, not just the rich
May. 1 | Announcement: The Online Citizen will bring you “live” updates from Suntec City tomorrow (Saturday) of the AWARE Extraordinary General Meeting. “Live” updates will begin from 12 noon. Stay tuned to TOC! By Avery Chong, Gerald Giam, Nathaniel...
Concerned about procedures for reporting food poisoning cases
Apr. 9 | Gerald Giam I am very concerned over what seems to be a lack of efficient procedures in place to avert mass public health tragedies like the recent Geylang Serai rojak stall food poisoning incident. Three lives have been lost (including one unborn baby),...
Parliamentary report — Debates on HDB rental flats, upgrading, e-engagement and Gaza crisis
Feb. 7 | By Gerald Giam / Senior Writer 6 FEBRUARY — PARLIAMENT on Friday debated the budgets of three ministries – Foreign Affairs, National Development, and Information, Communications and the Arts. Ministry of National Development Mr Low Thia Khiang...
Govt accepts 17 of AIMs’s 26 recommendations
Jan. 9 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer The Singapore Government this morning responded to the recommendations submitted by the government-appointed Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS). It spelled out in its 18-page paper the reasons for...
Gaza – Perspectives on the situation
Jan. 5 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer Israeli blogger and former army reserve “AronT”, who blogs at Aron’s Israeli Peace Weblog, claimed that Israelis have long been indoctrinated by three political/military laws which dictate their dealings...
S’poreans and foreigners both paying the price
Dec. 9 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer On 4 December at a National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) forum for employers and unions, NTUC chief Lim Swee Say and Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong were both reduced to imploring employers to retrench foreign workers...
Billion dollar profits but still axing jobs
Nov. 8 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer The stunning news blared out on Friday that Singapore‘s largest bank, DBS, will be cutting 900 jobs by the end of this month. (See here). At least half of the job cuts will be from its 7,600 workforce in Singapore. DBS...
The fear of the opposition
Oct. 29 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer I happened to sit next to an older relative at a wedding dinner recently, when our conversation turned to politics. My relative wondered why I had not followed my parents to Australia, and mused that he was considering moving...
The Elected Presidency and future non-PAP govts
Oct. 26 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer If the most important position in the world – the US Presidency – can be left to a democratic vote by citizens, I don’t see why Singapore cannot do the same. The debate about the relevance of the Elected Presidency...
The stork is still not quite convinced
Sep. 25 | This is the second of a two-part series in response to the marriage and parenthood package announced by the Prime Minister in his National Day Rally speech 2008. Read Part One here. Gerald Giam / Deputy Editor Among the goodies to be doled out by the...
TOC Policy Feature: Improving Singapore’s Public Transport System – A Commuter’s Perspective
Sep. 7 | The following article was first published in February 2008. We highlight it here again as part of TOC’s Public Transport Week. By Gerald Giam and Selene Cheng This paper seeks to highlight problems and provide suggestions for improving the public...
Advisory council proposes further liberalisations of the Internet
Aug. 29 | Gerald Giam / Deputy Editor A government-appointed advisory council this morning released its draft recommendations on changing Singapore‘s Internet regulatory regime. Titled “Engaging New Media – Challenging Old Assumptions”, the...
Don’t be a stupid cupid
Aug. 29 | Gerald Giam / Deputy Editor This is the first of a two-part series in response to the marriage and parenthood package announced by the Prime Minister in his National Day Rally speech 2008. In his National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong...
The Online Media: Untangling Singapore’s web of politics
Aug. 21 | The following is an article which TOC’s Deputy Editor Gerald Giam wrote for Opinion Asia. We would like to thank Opinion Asia for letting us re-publish it in full here. The article has also been published in the Straits Times, under the title “New...
Of eggs and baskets
Aug. 15 | If I were a PAP campaign strategist (which I am obviously not educationally qualified to be), I would advise them to liberalize politics significantly. In one fell swoop, they would pull the rug under the opposition’s feet. Gerald Giam
Don’t beat down activists
Aug. 12 | Below is a letter which Gerald Giam wrote to My Paper in response to the paper’s article on politics and the Olympics by its sports editor, Chia Han Keong. Gerald’s letter has not been published. ——- Dear Editor, I was disappointed to...
National Day or MP Day?
Aug. 11 | Gerald Giam / Deputy Editor As August 9th draws near, springing up all over the island are posters of smiling People’s Action Party Members of Parliament (MP) and Government ministers wishing Singaporeans a Happy National Day. While this might be a...
Navigating Singapore’s new media environment
Jul. 18 | Below is Gerald Giam’s speech at the Reel Revolution learning talk, organised by The Substation, on 12 July 2008. Gerald Giam | Deputy Editor Singapore was ranked 153rd out of 195 countries by Freedom House, in its 2008 report on media freedom. A...
Young and old in S’pore want more political openness
Jul. 8 | Gerald Giam I find it hard to believe that all the brilliant minds in the Cabinet haven’t figured out that Singaporeans are crying out for change. Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek, recently gave an interview with the Straits Times, which was...
A justice system to protect the strong or the weak?
Jul. 4 | Gerald Giam Punishing only the sellers sends a wrong message that our criminal justice system favours the rich and powerful over the poor. This week, the Singapore courts sentenced two Indonesian men to jail and fined them for selling their kidneys to...
Religious freedom and its discontents
Jun. 24 | Gerald Giam responds to “Religion and the right not to respect it“. Freedom of religion is one of the fundamental human rights that most of the world has agreed on — at least in principle. In practice, however, people in many countries...
Govt’s graduate equation needs balancing
Jun. 17 | Gerald Giam The Government seems to be taking one step forward and two steps back on the issue of university education. During last year’s National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced plans to set up a fourth university in...
Judging the judiciary
Jun. 6 | Gerald Giam “People must have confidence that the judiciary is independent…In order to make sure that we protect the integrity of the judiciary, and to make sure that people’s confidence in the judiciary is not affected, you have to...
Crisis of leadership in S’pore
May. 11 | Gerald Giam Mr Viswa Sadasivan, CEO of communications training and consultancy Strategic Moves and renowned social commentator, recently gave a talk where he shared his views about politics in Singapore. True to his style, Mr Viswa’s off-the-cuff...
New Cabinet line-up throws up some surprises
Mar. 30 | Gerald Giam The new Cabinet announced by the Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday evening unveiled some surprises in both promotions and non-promotions.
TOC’s focus on Malaysia
Mar. 25 | The Dawn of a New Malaysian Malaysia? Gerald Giam In the wake of the political tsunami of the recent Malaysian elections which saw the opposition alliance breaking the ruling coalition’s two-thirds majority in Parliament, it has become apparent...
Another alleged JI member detained…but where is Mas Selamat?
Mar. 23 | Gerald Giam The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has announced the detention of another alleged Jemaah Islamiah (JI) member. Rijal Yadri bin Jumari, 27, was arrested in February for his involvement in the JI. According to MHA, at the time of his arrest,...
Escape has yet to dent govt’s hubris
Mar. 6 | By Gerald Giam While in a cab last Saturday, I recalled the newspapers reporting that within hours of alleged Jemaah Islamiah leader Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape from detention, a broadcast was sent to all taxis urging them to look out for the escaped...
Knowledge-based economy needs more Uni education financing
Feb. 20 | By Gerald Giam FINANCE Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced in his 2008 Budget Speech that the Government will increase the CDC/CCC-University Bursaries for students from the lowest 20 percent of households from $1,000 to $1,600. This is a step in...
Means testing or comprehensive medical insurance?
Jan. 30 | By Gerald Giam Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has announced that means testing will likely be implemented in restructured hospitals by the end of this year. Although the details of how it is going to be administered have not been confirmed, one fact seems...
Cabby’s actions now not “illegal”. He only “flouted rules”
Jan. 9 | By Gerald Giam Last night (this morning actually), I wrote a post commenting about the article, Discount ads on taxis illegal: LTA, which appeared in the late Monday night (7 Jan) edition of the Straits Times. The sub-header was, “Marketing tactics...
83% Hike in Taxi Fares not Comforting at all
Dec. 12 | By Gerald Giam The newspaper, TODAY, carried this report in its August 14, 2007, issue: “For the half-year ended June 30, 2007, ComfortDelGro achieved an 8.6-per-cent increase in revenue to about $1.5 billion. Net profit rose 10.5 per cent to $113.9...
Who really is “not ready” for a non-Chinese PM?
Dec. 11 | By Gerald Giam The recent announcement of Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s promotion to Finance Minister — in addition to his current Education portfolio — set many tongues wagging as to whether he might be the successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien...
How to deliver economic growth but lose an election
Nov. 25 | By Gerald Giam How is it possible to preside over a booming economy and yet still lose a national election? Australia‘s outgoing Prime Minister John Howard may be puzzling over that question as he conceded defeat to the opposition Labor party...
Co-ordinated, carrot-and-stick approach needed for Burma
Oct. 31 | BREAKING NEWS: Monks return to the streets of Burma. (BBC) No one party will be able to bring about lasting change for the better in Burma on its own. By Gerald Giam The shooting appears to have stopped, but the sufferings of the 47 million people of...
Government using hyperbole to justify public protests ban
Oct. 26 | By Gerald Giam The Singapore Government has once again employed the use of hyperbole to justify its near-total ban on public demonstrations, whether peaceful or not. In his letter to the Straits Times and TODAY, the deputy director at the Ministry of...
US ambassador says “US will fight” if China invades Taiwan
Aug. 30 | By Gerald Giam If the People’s Republic of China decides to take Taiwan by force, the US will fight on behalf of Taiwan against the Mainland, said a former US ambassador. Chase Untermeyer, who just completed his tour as ambassador to Qatar and is...
A little red dot worth fighting for
Aug. 7 | In the lead-up to National Day, TOC’s writers share their personal views on what it means to be a Singaporean and what Singapore means to them. By Gerald Giam “I am not going to sacrifice my life for a worthless piece of land”, cried one...
PM’s son’s email saga a heartening development for Singapore
Jul. 13 | By Gerald Giam Army Second Lieutenant (2LT) Li Hongyi’s June 28 email complaint sent to all the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) head honchos has caused ripples on the Internet for the past two weeks. Much mud has been slung at 2LT Li for his brash...
Latest “terrorist” detentions: Some questions
Jun. 18 | This is an extract from Gerald Giam’s blog. On June 9, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) made a shock announcement that it had detained a young lawyer, Abdul Basheer s/o Abdul Karim, and 4 alleged Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives under the Internal...
Myanmar regime belongs in the dog house
Jun. 6 | By Gerald Giam The extension of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment on 27 May 2007 was a widely expected move by the country’s military government which has already kept her under detention for most of...
